Cricket: Hundreds of India vs Pakistan Asia Cup tickets unsold

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Hundreds of tickets for the India vs Pakistan cricket match at the Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai remain unsold on the morning of the fixture, a rare occurrence for a cricket match between the South Asian archrivals.

With less than eight hours before the start of the 6:30pm (14:30 GMT) game, tickets were available on Sunday in three stands and one hospitality section of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on the tournament’s official ticketing website.

Tickets priced at $205 in the premium stand, as well as those costing $245 in the east and west pavilion stands, were available in their dozens.

Seats were also available in one of the several hospitality stands, costing $1,645 apiece.

While the tournament’s organisers – the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) – have not made an official comment on the unsold tickets, local fans blame the hot weather in the Gulf nation as a major discouraging factor.

“September is one of the hottest months in this part of the world, with high temperatures and extreme humidity, making it difficult to be outdoors even in the evenings,” Shahid Khan, a Dubai resident, told media.

“While players may get paid to play in this weather, fans have to spend large amounts of money to purchase tickets. Why would they do that to suffer in the heat?”

The temperature in the evening, close to the match start time, is forecast at 36C (95F), with humidity touching 50 percent.

media reached out to the ACC but was told the official ticket sale figures would be confirmed once the match gets under way and no comment would be made on the sales until then.

Cricket experts believe the highly strained political relations between India and Pakistan, who were involved in an intense four-day cross-border conflict in May, are also to be blamed.

“Some fans have decided to boycott the fixture in order to register their protest against their government’s decision to go ahead with the match despite the ongoing bitterness against the neighbour,” Indian cricket writer Kuldip Lal told media in the lead-up to the match.

While it is not unusual to spot vacant seats in cricket matches in the UAE, tickets for an India-Pakistan men’s cricket match in any part of the world sell like hot cakes on most occasions.

Typically, tickets sell out within a few hours of going on sale, especially for global and regional tournaments such as ICC World Cups or the Asia Cup.

Fans are known to go to great lengths, including paying high premiums on resale platforms and in the black market, to get their hands on a ticket.